


Escape Plan

by eviternalism



Category: The Haunting of Hill House (TV 2018)
Genre: Episode AU: s01e05 The Bent-Neck Lady, Episode: s01e05 The Bent-Neck Lady, F/M, Nell Survives, The Haunting of Hill House spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-29
Updated: 2020-10-29
Packaged: 2021-03-09 03:28:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,892
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27267991
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eviternalism/pseuds/eviternalism
Summary: Episode 05: The Bent-Neck Lady spoilersWhen Nell begins dancing with Arthur at Hill House, the House thinks it has won. What Hill House fails to account for is that Arthur had taught Nell an escape plan.
Relationships: Eleanor "Nell" Crain & Arthur Vance, Eleanor "Nell" Crain/Arthur Vance
Comments: 8
Kudos: 93





	Escape Plan

The House’s first mistake was forgetting Theo’s gloves.

It’s a gentle, yet certain hand that reaches out for Nell’s, bringing her closer to her sister, dressed in her bridesmaid outfit. It catches Nell off guard, but she swallows her gasp and watches, moon-eyed, as Theo apologizes, “I’m so sorry that we fought”. The words sink into the background as Nell registers the squeeze of her hand, with not even a hint of pause from her sister’s apologetic eyes.

“It’s okay,” Nell whispers back, trying not to think about how the last time she held her sister’s hand was in her apartment, held against the spot where she last saw her husband.

“You were right,” Theo admits, and Nell can’t tell whether it’s disbelief or familiarity that makes her laugh at the statement.

The thought dissipates as she makes sense of two familiar shapes by the door, and the rush of seeing her mother beside her father again moves through her body with immediacy, bringing tears to her eyes as she takes a steadying breath.

“I’m so proud of you, Button.”

A sob breaks through Nell’s lips and she’s just about ready to cry into her mother’s arms when her parents turn to reveal her twin brother, handsome as ever in a metallic blue suit.

_Luke_.

“Thanks for believing in me, Nellie. It did the trick.” The sight of him is so beautiful. “I’m clean and sober all thanks to you.” She wonders why it makes her want to cry.

Luke takes a step back and the smile Nell’s holding onto fades away when she recognizes her husband.

It takes two words to shake her down to her core. “Hey gorgeous.”

Her body shivers at the sight of Arthur, something simultaneously breaking and healing within herself. Time slows to a still as he reaches his hand out to her and it’s not so much a choice as much as a wish when she reaches back.

The House’s second mistake was, at first glance, nothing more than a strand of hair out of place.

Their hands touched. Nothing outside the house could ever matter as much as this. She recognizes him in his calm, steadfast brown eyes, resolute even as she trembled and gasped.

“I missed you,” he tells her and liberates her of months-worth of pain. Nellie melts into his embrace, and he meets her there. “So much.”

Touching her forehead to his, she finds the strength to admit, “I’ve missed you…”

“I know.” Arthur whispers and suddenly, they’re dancing. “I know.”

The House’s second mistake was a simple, almost imperceptible, gesture of the hand.

Arthur and Nellie floated across the foyer and into the statue garden. Even with her eyes closed, Nellie felt everything. She was certain this was her home.

He spun her and she tiptoed down the tiled floor, only for him to catch her like a promise. He held her there, their lips only a moment from meeting. Nellie pictured an eternity of them in that instant, immortalized as perfect marble statues.

She was sure Arthur imagined this too, as he brought his hand to her cheek to tuck a loose strand of her hair behind her ear. A curl of it wrapped itself perfectly around his fingers, and he slowly let it unfurl with a simple, almost imperceptible, motion of his hand.

But there was a familiarity in this gesture.

In her best effort to remember, she pictured the weight of blankets, light streaming in through a window, and the sound of Arthur breathing beside her. She knew mornings like that; she also knew mornings that came more abruptly, with her limbs freezing in place and her breath becoming harder to grasp. She recalled Arthur, always perceptive, being by her side as he motioned his hand like a wave, reminding her to–

 _Breathe_.

Nellie saw glimpses of moonlight, mold and marble flash before her eyes. She pictured Arthur, pristine marble-white and lifeless, and a small whimper escaped her lips. She realized she couldn’t move.

The light around her turned honey-warm as music flourished back into her vision, her nightgown fluttering with the smallest whisper of wind in the house. She felt Arthur’s warmth again and nearly settled into it when she heard his voice.

 _Escape plan_.

It wasn’t Arthur who said it, and yet she knew the voice was unmistakably his.

 _You’ve got this,_ the familiar voice coaxed from within her, echoes of a previous, distant life.

And so, she began breathing. Her dancing partner picked up the movement again, as they spun together in perfect harmony. She counted her steps and breathed through them, shaky at first but certain, nonetheless. The man in the blue suit caught her lips between his own and she closed her eyes.

 _Good job,_ the memory whispered _. Now clench your fist._

Full circle, they danced into the foyer again as their bridal party watched with beautiful, perfect smiles that Nellie didn’t dare look at. They watched as he spun her again, both smiling as they came back together, a little closer this time. Nellie leaned her head into his collarbone, one hand holding his, and the other one delicately placed at the nape of his shoulders. Endearingly, she clenched her hand around the fabric of the blue suit-jacket, as if looking to reassure herself he was there.

The lights flickered. Nellie closed her eyes and counted to seven.

“I love you, Arthur,” she whispered into the thin night air and clenched her fist again before opening her eyes.

She stood alone in the quiet, abandoned house.

A gust of wind blew through the cracks in the windows, lifting the dust and rotten leaves an inch off the floor. Nell’s nightgown swished around her trembling, cold legs. The wind whispered something in her ear. She could not make words out of it, and yet she understood. Then, for the first time in years, all of the lights of Hill House came to life at once.

_Run._

Bursting through the main door, Nellie sprinted across the lawn. Unkept roots in the soil snapped and scratched at the fabric of her nightgown, tearing its mud-soaked edges into ribbons. Nellie heard screams from every edge of the garden but focused only on-

 _Run_!

Something in the ground trips her, but she rolls her body onto the ground and gains her momentum before getting on her feet again, ignoring the ache of her bruising skin. She ignores the sting of her lungs as she takes every breath between her and her car, clutching her keys tightly into her skin as she shoved them out of her pocket. When she gets to the car, she feels hands just out of reach pulling at her hair and grabbing at her nightgown. She doesn’t look back as she gets in and locks the door behind her.

The walls and roof of her car bang loudly, and she’s sure she hears the metal bend under the weight, but she puts the keys into the ignition and speeds her way across the entry path. The pocket watch on her dashboard clatters onto the ground.

In the distance, she recognizes the metal of the entry gates glimmer in the light of her headlights, and Nell curses loudly as she realizes it isn’t a question of whether or not she has one last fight left within her, but how much she’s willing to thrash and fight the house, refusing to go gently into its darkness.

Nellie removes her foot from the brakes and hits the accelerator until she’s flying through the night air and into the metal gates. The metal bends to her will but refuses to let her through, the large metal lock still hanging onto the gently rusting bars. Her neck feels on fire as she picks up her head to look into the cold, dark night. The night looks back.

She places her hand on the gear shift and manoeuvres the car backwards, ready to hit the gate again. One of the windows in the back bursts open and she hears screaming, but she’s already crashing into the gate again.

The warmth of her blood caresses her forehead, and she’s sure she has a broken wrist and busted knee. It doesn’t matter. Her shaking hand returns to the gear shift when she feels a blinding light take up her vision, and she fights against it until she realizes it’s another car on the opposite side of the gates.

She blinks away her blood, sweat and tears to make out her sibling staring straight at her, getting out of their car. She does the same.

Her legs threaten to give out from underneath her, but it doesn’t stop her as she climbs onto the car lodged into the gates, and jumps over it to grab the top rung of the gates. The metal clangs against her tired body, but she manages to pull her weight up until she’s managed to pile most of her body over the top.

Luke stands below her and holds his hands up towards her, handsome as ever in the glow of the headlights.

She jumps off the edge and thinks of her mother for some reason. When she’s caught, then tumbling onto her twin’s body, she sees her mother's kindness in his eyes and tries to say something, but the words die in her throat. He barely notices, looking as terrified as she remembers him in their childhood bedroom, but he picks her up anyway and helps her into the car.

“Shit Nellie, what happened in there?” he asks as he tries to accommodate for her injuries, but she pushes his arms away and hauls her weight onto the seat.

“Don’t!” she hisses and watches him close the door. “Go!”

He swerves messily but manages to turn the car back onto the road. As their bodies sway in the movement, Nellie finally clenches her jaw and allows herself to feel the damage done to her. She’s crying again and her brother tries to hide that he’s doing the same.

“I thought you–” Luke manages, “I thought that I’d find you dead. You went back and I… I knew.” He slammed his hand on the steering wheel as tears slipped down his cheeks.

She remained quiet, considering asking him how he knew to come rescue her, but she quickly realized she already knew how and why. She could lie to her father, but lying to Luke was never an option to begin with.

“I saw you die,” Luke whispered weakly. “I was looking for Joey and I saw her. Not Joey, I mean. I saw the Bent-Neck Lady. You know I believed you. I always did, but I never saw her. Not until today. And she was you.”

Nellie turned to look at her twin. She saw him and for the first time ever, felt like they weren’t being chased by something in the shadows. She managed a weak smile, and then thought about what her brother was saying.

“Who?”

Luke contemplated her for a few seconds, pondering at her injuries until he suddenly realized he wasn’t sure he knew who the Bent-Neck Lady was either.

The House’s third mistake was assuming that love was just an escape, and that one day all of its victims would return to its clutches.

No, sometimes love is an escape plan.

**Author's Note:**

> Dedicated to Erin, Emeel, Vape, Travis & Jordan, who binged the entire series with me last night.
> 
> May or may not return to post a sequel for this AU. Please leave your kudos if you enjoyed this <3


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